


The Lenked Uneverse

by neonkorok



Category: The Legend of Zelda & Related Fandoms
Genre: Crack, Crack Treated Seriously, Creation Myth, Gen, I’m sorry, Linked Universe, Time Travel, enjoy, he is all, he is god, he is one, here it is lads, lenk is eternal, the fic you’ve all been waiting for
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-10-28
Updated: 2019-10-28
Packaged: 2021-01-05 16:47:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,924
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21211826
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/neonkorok/pseuds/neonkorok
Summary: As the creator of worlds, Lenk has lived his life in solitude, merely an observer and curator of the passage of time. When a portal linking two different times appears that is not his own creation, he decides that it’s about time he changes the roles. Thus, Lenk becomes a Hero of his own, a player in his own game.It doesn’t exactly go as he’d intended.





	1. A Lenk to the Past

**Author's Note:**

> why is the only thing i actually post for this fandom crack?
> 
> i’m so sorry.
> 
> i promise i’ll have an actual good fic up by the end of november. i swear it.

There are many different theories on the creation of the world. The most widely accepted is that the three sister goddesses, Din, Farore, and Lanayru, created the world with their omnipotence. This theory is also used to explain the existence of the Triforce, with each sister having created a triangle of their own power, courage, or wisdom.

Others believe that Hylia is the true creator of the world, and that her love and power created all existence. She is said to have favored the virtues of power, courage, and wisdom, and thus created the Triforce as a reminder to all that these are the principles around which they should build their lives.

Some even believe that the world suddenly just came into being one day, independent of any deity, and that all of life and matter was created in a single instant, sometimes through an explosion, sometimes from nothing directly into everything.

None of these theories are correct. In fact, nobody has even gotten it close. For they all have missed the presence of one single being.

Lenk.

In a general sense, Lenk is not exactly alive. He has a physical form, and can appear as he wants to—often favoring the visage of any of the Heroes of Courage with his own magnificent face slightly transparent atop it—but he does not truly live. He is not a person. He is an idea. This is what gives him his power. It is also what makes him immortal. After all, the hardest thing to kill is an idea. Even if it is uprooted from the minds of all who have heard it, it will always return in some way. Ideas are the most virulent of pathogens. They persist everywhere, at every time. Such does Lenk.

But if Lenk has always existed, if he is the ultimate creator, the breather of life and its equal destroyer, how is it that no one knows of him?

He does not want to be known. Lenk is a humble being. He does not want fame, nor worship, nor gratitude. Like all things, he has flaws, and he acknowledges this fact. He wonders how a being so imperfect as he could be loved universally, and decides it is best not to show himself to the world. Let them imagine their own theories, their own beliefs. Leave them to their fanciful lies. It will do them well not to know the life, or lack thereof, of one such as he.

For all that he does not let the people know of his existence, Lenk does not leave them alone. Far from it. He is constantly walking the earth, living among his followers and keeping track of all that is and all that isn’t and never will be, until it is.

One day, as he was walking through the woods of Hyrule wearing the face of the Ten-Thousand Year Hero with his own partially superimposed atop it, he sensed a disturbance. The wind began to blow the wrong way, several birds flew directly at the sun, and a deer began to dig a foxhole. He stopped, looking around himself in confusion. It almost felt like something was being created. But that couldn’t be right; the only thing that could create was him. Nothing else. And yet he felt ripples through the fabric of existence, pulling apart the carefully woven strings of time he had made oh so long ago. He was sure this spelled trouble.

He waded through the ripples to their source, viewing even stranger natural phenomena as he went. He had given people, Hylian Heroes specifically, the ability to meddle with time on several occasions in the past. (Why not? It was always interesting to watch and keep track of.) As such, he knew what enabled meddling with the aid of tools created by himself felt like. The pool of time would be perfectly stable on the surface, but underneath, there would be a slight undercurrent moving one way, then back the other, ever changing but ever constant. These ripples spread right across the surface of the pool. There was no tool involved. There was not even Lenk involved. The waves simply appeared, spread, and continued on. Never did they recede. Never did they cease. They simply continued until they reached the edge, sloshing dangerously against the sides of their container and threatening to spill over. This would not do.

Finally, Lenk arrived at the center of the ripples. He found standing in the middle of the clearing a large, somewhat triangular portal. It spiraled with dark colors, sending off a deep purple mist. This was the origin of the ripples. This was the creation from what had already been created. This was the threat.

He approached the portal, feeling out with his mind more than his physical body at the elements and physical principles keeping it in place. It was highly unstable, barely keeping itself together and working. He was surprised it had lasted this long in such a state. He flicked his hand, more for flair than any actual necessity, and the portal stabilized. The ripples immediately calmed, spreading lower, slower, and more evenly across the pool, and he felt a rush of pride. Even with another being’s creation, he still held power. That was comforting. He still had no true rivals among beings.

He reached deeper into the fabric of the portal now, the tendrils of his mind wrapping around any bits of information they could find in the dark magic. Its basis was triangular, the same as all that Lenk had ever made, but rather than three connected triangles with a negative space fourth in their middle, this was one singular, whole triangle. Or, no…this one triangle was totally negative space. He frowned. Had someone found a loophole in his favored Triforce foundation? He knew the negative space had been a flaw, but he liked that something which seemed to fragile and unlikely could be the basis for all of being. Besides, the one time he’d added in a fourth piece to fill that gap, Tradition, he placed a curse upon the world even as he created their most beloved goddess. He would not make that same error again, even if it did provide him some entertainment throughout the centuries. It was always good fun to root for the current Hero of Courage.

He continued to poke and prod at the portal, trying to track down its creator now that he had seen its base. He searched for a few minutes before he finally found a string, pulled taut as it looped outside of the portal and back around inside of it, stretching into the unknown as it passed through, fading as it was pulled towards another time. He couldn’t see its end from the present. He smiled.

A bee flew in front of his face, and Lenk dissolved it with barely a thought. It reformed a few feet away, paused for a moment in confusion, then kept on its merry way. Lenk reached out a hand, finding the string in the metaphysical plane, and grabbed hold. He closed his eyes, took a breath, and walked through the portal.

Most portals, in his experience, took a short amount of time to pass you between the worlds they connected. The connection between Lorule and Hyrule, for existence, spanned lightyears of distance, but the doors that he left to that connection included a time-altering property, the strongest he could create, that turned those lightyears into moments. It took less than a minute to travel between the worlds.

This portal, however, took _ages_ to pass through. Lenk yawned at some point through the journey, and he’d never yawned before! He hadn’t even known he could do so unconsciously. He busied himself with examining the internal workings of the portal as he slowly made his way through it, feeling out the interconnected fabrics of space soaked in the waters of time that broke and reformed and fused to carry him along. He’d mapped out the entire inside of the portal (only a few million miles long; there was no way his travel should be this slow) by the time he saw the exit. He sighed in relief as he neared it. That was two minutes of his existence he was never getting back. He was glad it hadn’t been longer.

He exited the portal in a flash of light, his feet stepping softly onto the stone floor, and examined his surroundings. He seemed to be inside the Temple of Time; fitting for travel through a time-crossing portal, but nonsensical in that the portal he’d entered hadn’t even been in Hyrule at all. The location of the kingdom had remained mostly stagnant since its founding (other than during the great flood in that one timeline, but that sorted itself out when he raised some more land for the people to live upon). It shouldn’t have been possible for the portal to place him here unless he’d _really_ underestimated its creator.

Fiddling with the string he still held in his hand, Lenk followed its trail out of the front doors. He hadn’t been certain before where exactly in the timeline of things he’d been placed, but he found he seemed to be around the child Hero of Time’s place in the pool. The castle still stood proudly in the distance, and he could hear people speaking to one another in Castle Town as they went about their day. The string led towards them.

He paused at the top of the stairs, contemplating his appearance. He didn’t usually present himself to living things, at least sentient ones, but he had a feeling that he might just need to in this circumstance. He waved his pinky in a small circle, and the over-layer of his true face on the Thousand-Year Hero’s faded completely. That would do. After all, nobody here would actually know who his current figure was of. It would do.

He continued on, taking the steps two at a time as he felt the string begin to move. He rounded the corner into the center square and his eyes immediately fell upon the string’s owner. He slumped slightly in disappointment. It was just the Hero of the Wild. He must have grabbed the wrong string.

Link was looking around in confusion, obviously not recognizing where he was. Lenk felt bad for him; he’d only just started to truly grasp his reality and his past when he’d last seen the hero, and now all of that was thrown right back out the window. A true tragedy.

Lenk paused for a moment next to a crowd of people fighting over some wares to think. There were a few paths he could take here. He could take on an observational role, as he often did when encountered with something that seemed like it could be fun to watch play out, he could be some aloof stranger often appearing right in the thick of things to lend a helping hand and have a slightly more integral role, as he’d done several times in the past, most notably as the mysterious Happy Mask Salesman, or…

Or he could put himself right in the middle of the action. His heart leapt at the thought. He’d never done something so daring, so bold before. Change was important, though, especially in matters of time. And, well, nothing was more a matter of time than time travel, right?

Lenk, his decision made, stifled a smile as he approached Link, who had now wandered near the fountain at the center of the square with a lost expression.

“Excuse me.” he said, drawing Link’s attention. “I couldn’t help but notice that you seem a bit…lost.”

Link nodded. “Yeah, I have…no idea where I am.”

Lenk paused for a moment, trying to figure out how much to tell him and how to say it.

“I believe the question isn’t so much ‘where,’” Lenk began, “But rather ‘when.’”

“What do you mean?” Link asked suspiciously.

“Perhaps it would be better to introduce myself first.” Lenk said. He held out a hand. “I’m Link, the Hero of the Sheikah.”

Link stared at him, wide-eyed. “The…Hero, Link?”

Lenk nodded, feeling a bit bad for lying to him but deciding it would ultimately be worth it.

“I’m Link.” Link said, slowly reaching out to take Lenk’s hand and shake it. “The Hero of the Wild.”

Lenk smiled. “I figured. I could feel your aura and power as soon as I arrived here from a portal. You’re certainly a Hero of Courage, I’ll tell you that.”

“You also came from a portal?” Link asked, his hands now worrying the clasp of his cloak. “So you don’t really know where we are, either?”

“Unfortunately, no.” Lenk lied. “Though I think I know where we might be able to find out.”

“How?” Link paused. “Is it…the same way you felt I was here? Auras?”

Lenk nodded. “I feel another hero. This one isn’t not very close, though. In fact, I believe they’re not even in this town at all, but rather a few miles away.”

Link chewed his lip for a moment. “Well,” he finally said, “If it’s our best bet to figure out what’s going on, I say we should head to them.”

Lenk nodded. Just as he was about to begin walking towards the Hero of Time’s home, he felt another ripple run through the pool. He turned to look at the Temple of Time. It almost felt like…

“What is it?” Link asked.

Lenk didn’t answer him, already walking away. He heard the hero follow right behind, but paid him little mind. He quickly climbed the steps leading to the building, taking them two at a time, and cautiously pushed open the door. He stopped and stared at what he saw.

Where the portal that had deposited him into this time had stood earlier now stood not one, but seven portals. This wasn’t visible to the naked eye, of course, as they all occupied the same physical space, but their _metaphysical_ presence…

“That’s the portal I came through.” Link said.

Lenk shook his head. “No, they’re not.”

“They?” Link asked.

“There are seven different portals occupying that space.” Lenk explained. “All leading to different places. I presume even different times.”

Link opened his mouth to speak again, but before he could, there was a flash of light and a new person arrived from one of the portals.

They cursed as their legs failed to support them and they crashed down to the floor. That cursing continued as they pushed themself up to a sitting position, only ceasing when they spotted their company. Lenk was impressed by the extent of his colorful vocabulary, but was well aware that he was probably too young to be allowed to curse this much.

“Oh, hey, didn’t see ya there.” Link, the Hero of Wind and Spirit said, a wide grin on his face. “Speaking of ‘there,’ where am I?”

“We don’t know.” Lenk said while Link just stared at Link. Hm, that was confusing.

“Well that’s just peachy.” Link muttered.

“I’m Link, by the way.” Lenk said. “So is he.” He gestured to Link at this. “And you are?”

“…Also Link.” Link said. “That’s weird.”

“Everything about today is so confusing.” Link said, putting his head in his hands. He took a deep breath, then went back to messing with his cloak. “Maybe we could come up with nicknames?”

Lenk nodded. “That would probably be helpful. Anyone got any ideas?”

“You can call me Wind.” Link—now Wind—said, finally standing up. “That’s one of my hero titles, so it would make sense.”

“You’re also a hero?” Link asked.

“Also? You guys are, too?” Wind asked.

Lenk nodded. “Heroes of the Sheikah and Wild.” he confirmed.

“Speaking of, call me Wild.” Wild said.

Lenk hummed. “It’s probably not a good idea to call me Sheikah, as that’s a whole race of people. I’m not sure what else I could be, though.”

Before anyone had time to suggest a different name, another person appeared, also cursing as they fell from the portal but stopping much quicker. The Hero of Legend took one look at the three heroes (really two and a godlike being) and groaned.

“Not this shit again.” he muttered. “Please tell me none of you are named Ravio.”

“Nope, but we are all named Link.” Lenk said with a smirk.

“Lovely.” Link said. “Excuse me for a moment.”

He got up, taking off his bag as he did. He turned around and raised his bag to his face, then proceeded to scream into it for a solid minute. Wild and Wind watched him warily, but Lenk was more sympathetic. Link really did deserve so much more than he got.

“Okay, I’m good.” Link said, turning back around. “So what’s the situation?”

“No clue.” Lenk said cheerily. “Right now, we’re just coming up with nicknames.”

“So far I’m Wild and he’s Wind, based on our hero titles.” Wild explained, gesturing to Wind, who waved when his name was said.

“Call me Legend.” Legend said. “You don’t have a nickname yet?” he asked Lenk.

“Maybe Sheik?” he suggested, thoughtful. “Though Sheik has been the monicker of a few Zeldas throughout history, so maybe that’s not the best idea…”

“What about—” Wind started, but he was cut off by five more people falling out of portals at the same time. Thankfully, they were just screaming, not cursing. (Lenk had half a mind to wash Wind and Legend’s mouths out with soap, but he resisted.)

“Hi there! We’re all named Link. I assume you are, too.” Lenk greeted the newcomers. The five of them all turned to stare at him.

“Is this time travel?” one of the Links, the Hero of Warriors, asked. “Because I feel like this is time travel. Is this the Temple of Time?”

“I have absolutely no idea.” Wild said tiredly. “I have no clue what’s going on.”

“I think our new friends need some nicknames before we get any further.” Lenk said, getting the discussion back on track.

“Call me Four.” the smallest Link said.

“Is that from your hero title?” Wind asked. “That’s where mine, Wild’s, and Legend’s are from.” He pointed around each hero as he named them.

“It’s from one of them, I suppose.” Four confirmed.

“Call me Warriors.” Warriors said. He looked distracted, examining their surroundings with a critical eye.

“You can call me Sky.” said Sky with a friendly smile. “It’s not my hero title, but I don’t really want to go around being called Chosen.”

Four turned to him with wide eyes. “You’re the Chosen Hero?” he asked excitedly. “You’re the hero that came right before me!”

Sky looked at him, seeming slightly sick. “Came before?”

There was an awkward silence for a moment as the reality of the situation seemed to set in. They were all Heroes of Courage; they all had the spirit of Courage passed along to them. Lenk suddenly realized that, for all their journeys had been entertaining, these boys had been through quite a lot. Maybe even too much.

“Um, I can go by Hyrule.” Hyrule said, interrupting the silence. He smiled sheepishly when everyone turned to him.

“Twilight.” Twilight said. Wild turned to him and his gaze caught on the tattoo on Twilight’s forehead. He looked deep in thought.

“Well, now that that’s all settled—” Lenk began, but Wind cut him off.

“You still don’t have a nickname.” he pointed out.

Lenk hummed. “You’re right. Just call me Sheik for now, I guess. I’ll come up with something else later.

“Back to what I was saying, now that all of this has been settled, there is another Hero of Courage somewhere else in this land, probably the one of this time period that we’ve been transported to.” Lenk cocked his head, sending out mental feelers for where the last Link might be. He seemed to be approaching Castle Town, his speed indicating he was on horseback. “Let’s go out to meet them, shall we?”

The others all have nods of affirmation, and they followed him outside the temple and into Castle Town. The large group got some odd looks as they passed through, making a few of them uncomfortable at the attention. Lenk wasn’t used to so many people seeing him at once, and even if they didn’t know his true identity, it still put him off a bit. Nevertheless, he carried on.

Not far outside of Castle Town’s walls, the group encountered the final Link riding on his trusty steed towards them, fully armed and armored. He must have sensed something wrong. When he caught sight of the group, he began to slow, and Lenk waved to him cheerily.

“Hello, friend!” he called as Link finally drew to a stop before them. “Might your name happen to be Link?”

“Why do you ask?” Link asked, evading the question.

“Our names are all Link as well.” Sky explained, stepping forward. “We believe we’ve been transported through time to this land. We were all Heroes of Courage in our own times.”

Link looked at the Master Sword on Sky’s back and sighed heavily. “I felt something was off with the balance of the world. It figures that it would be something like this. Yes, my name is Link.”

Everyone gave their nicknames as introductions, and Link looked at Lenk curiously as he called himself Sheik. Twilight was looking at the shoulder of Link’s armor like Wild had been looking at his tattoo earlier. He must have recognized it as the Hero’s Shade’s.

“You can call me Time, I suppose.” Time said. “Now, do any of you have a clue as to the purpose of our meeting?”

“We all just came through portals and ended up here.” Legend said, his arms crossed. “I don’t suppose there’s an Impa or a Zelda we could ask for aid in this time?”

“You have an Impa, too?” Warriors asked.

“Do you _all_ have Zeldas and Impas?” Sky asked. That sick look he had earlier hadn’t faded since it appeared.

“I’ve got two Zeldas.” Hyrule said.

“No Impa for me.” Twilight said. “But yeah, I’ve got a Zelda.”

“I also have an Impa and a Zelda, though it’s odd to say that so possessively.” Time said. “I technically don’t even know them.”

“How do you ‘technically’ not know somebody?” Legend asked.

“I knew them in another time, quite literally.” Time explained. “They have no recollection of who I am, though I know them both well.”

“Time travel is like that, buddy.” Warriors said, looking at Time sadly. The look was quickly hidden away as he clapped Time, who was now standing beside Epona, on the shoulder.

“Well, I suppose we’re in this together now.” Four said.

“I guess so.” Legend agreed.

“Fantastic!” Lenk exclaimed. This was going to be fun.


	2. Breath of the Lenk

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lenk begins to regret his decision to join in on the journey, and makes a decision for the greater good.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The brilliant conclusion you’ve all been waiting so long for is finally here. I hope you all enjoy!

The life of a hero was not fun. Lenk didn’t know where he’d gotten that idea from.

As exciting as it was to live among the heroes of ages passed (and currently passing), it was _hard._ The amount of times they had to fight monsters was frustratingly small, most of their time more dedicated to travel and foraging for foods. It was so _tedious._ They’d passed through multiple Hyrules, and Lenk always got excited with each one at the prospect of finding something interesting, but it was never to be. Each one, while different in geography, was exactly the same.

He had some fun messing around with Ravio when they visited Legend’s Hyrule, but he was quickly shut down once Legend realized what he was doing. He couldn’t help it! Ravio was just too gullible, and Lenk was _so bored._ So why not pretend to be an agent of the gods sent to tell him he’d failed his duties? He hadn’t realized that would make Ravio _cry!_ It was all in good fun!

But no matter. His brilliant yet foiled plans aside, Lenk was not having a good time on this journey. They were currently stomping through Twilight’s Hyrule, traversing the Faron Woods as they headed for Ordon Village. They hadn’t been attacked in two hours, and Lenk was seriously considering summoning up some monsters so they could have another battle. That was the only really interesting part of this journey, he’d found. For all that it was fun to just watch and observe in the past, it was so boring to be the one being watched now.

And he was being watched. Especially after the Ravio incident, the Links had barely left Lenk alone. He figured they didn’t trust him. Which, fair, he _was_ lying to them about his identity, but it was still annoying. It meant he couldn’t sneak away and do any world-creating magic just because he felt like it. It was stifling. And it was _so boring._

“Let’s stop for lunch.” Time called out.

The group came to a halt and started to set up their things in a small clearing to their side. It wasn’t big enough to camp in for long, but it was enough to sit and have some food. Wild pulled out his Slate and got out some things that didn’t need to be cooked, then started to plate them up.

Lenk leaned against a tree on the border of the clearing, just watching. Suddenly, he realized that he wanted nothing less than to just sit around eating food for an hour while everyone talked to everyone but him, yet watched nobody more than they watched him. He realized that he didn’t want to _be here_ anymore. He was done.

Carefully, slowly, he stepped around the trunk of the tree so he was hidden from view. He closed his eyes, lightly manipulating the others so they wouldn’t look his way, then turned himself invisible. He heaved a great, inaudible sigh of relief as he felt his physical form slip away, replaced by nothing but air. He circled back around the tree and watched the others.

Warriors looked around lazily, just observing the area, then stopped once he’d made a full circle.

“Uh, guys?” he asked. The others looked at him questioningly. “Where’s Sheik?”

Everyone looked around, frantically searching the trees. Lenk was touched at their concern, but he knew they would be far better off without him. They just had to let him go.

“Is he finally gone?” Legend asked, only to be elbowed by Four. “What?”

Lenk’s heart grew. Legend had noticed that he wasn’t comfortable or happy with the group, knew that he wouldn’t be staying for much longer even if Lenk himself hadn’t known. A tear slipped from his eye. He regretted not saying goodbye to such a good friend, one who knew him better than he knew himself. But alas, what was done was done. There was no going back.

“We should probably go look for him.” Time said, though he didn’t seem too sure of himself. And another who knew him so well! He knew that Lenk could not be found. More tears streamed down his invisible face.

“I’m sure he’ll be fine.” Wild said, not even looking up from the plate he was currently putting together. He was so sure Lenk could handle himself! So sure of his abilities! Lenk was weeping now.

“So what’s for lunch?” Wind asked.

“I’m starving.” Sky added.

“Salad.” Wild told them, starting to pass out plates of leafy greens and vegetables.

“Can I add something?” Hyrule asked, pulling out a bottle of milky liquid.

“No.” everyone said at once. Hyrule pouted, but put the bottle away.

Lenk watched the group for a while longer until a portal suddenly appeared behind them. They jumped up, weapons drawn to attack, but nothing came out of the portal to attack. They all shared significant looks with one another, then as one, ran headlong into the swirling darkness, barely even picking up their things first. Lenk watched them go, then closed the portal he had just opened behind them.

It was for the best. Lenk knew this to be true. He would miss his companions dearly, to be sure, but they had to let him go. The best way to do so was to get them far, far away. The portal lead to Sky’s Hyrule, so Lenk would be as far removed from their timeline as possible for the moment.

He sighed, then turned to open another portal of his own. This one was a much more efficient design, a mere outline of his favored physical form filled in with whiteness. He’d set it to place him a few decades after Wild’s adventure, to avoid the risk of running into the heroes through their journey in time. He stepped quickly through the portal, instantly reappearing in the middle of Hickaly Woods. He took a deep breath and closed his nonexistent eyes. It was good to be back, and to be alone.

He looked to the side and saw the Stalnox that always slept here slowly piecing itself together as the moon rose red above him, then smirked.

_Oh, yes,_ he thought as he created a nine-foot-tall physical form for himself modeled after Four, imposing his face overtop the hero’s. (He figured the boy might appreciate being tall for once in his life.) He summoned a sword to each of his hands, brandishing them at the stalnox as it spotted him. He smiled with two mouths.

_It was very good to be back._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And…that was that. I don’t know if I’m sorry or proud. I’ll let you decide.

**Author's Note:**

> i’m going to upload the second chapter tonight :з so, uh…look out for that!
> 
> (i’m still so very, very sorry)


End file.
